Al-Jazeera raided, journalists assaulted in Egypt - CPJ

New York, August 16, 2013--Security forces raided and shut down the Cairo offices of Al-Jazeera Arabic following violent clashes that have swept the country, according to news reports. Multiple local and international journalists have also reported being attacked by security forces and protesters.

Egyptian security forces raided and closed Al-Jazeera Arabic's office late last night, the network reported. Security forces ordered staff members at the office to leave the building and formed a cordon to prevent employees from re-entering.

"If they genuinely seek to establish democracy, Egyptian authorities must learn to tolerate all viewpoints," said Sherif Mansour, CPJ's Middle East and North Africa coordinator. "We call on the government to reopen the offices of Al-Jazeera and allow all news outlets to operate freely."

Al-Jazeera's Egyptian affiliate, Al-Jazeera Mubashir, as well as several stations supportive of former President Mohamed Morsi, was previously raided on July 3 moments after the Egyptian military announced his removal. Cameras and equipment confiscated in the previous raid have not yet been returned, Al-Jazeera reported. Al-Jazeera and its affiliates have been severely criticized by many Egyptians who accuse the network of pro-Morsi bias.

The state-run Ahram newspaper reported Thursday that authorities are meeting next week to discuss the withdrawal of Al-Jazeera Mubashir's license in Egypt.

Several Al-Jazeera staff are in detention or facing litigation. Photographer Mohammad Bader has been detained since July 15 on charges of weapon possession. Al-Jazeera has denied the charges against Bader. Authorities have not disclosed the whereabouts of correspondent Abdullah al-Shami, who was detained on Wednesday. Bureau Chief Abdel Fateh Fayed and broadcast engineer Ahmed Hassan have been accused of threatening national security in their news coverage and are under investigation.

Several local and international journalists faced harassment while reporting on the ongoing clashes across Egypt in the aftermath of the bloody raids against pro-Morsi sit-ins on Wednesday.

"Journalists are in more danger than they were under Hosni Mubarak in terms of both legal and physical threats," said CPJ's Mansour.

Police confiscated the equipment of Egypt Independent's Tom Rollins as he was reporting near Ramses Square, the journalist told CPJ. The equipment of freelance journalists Cliff Cheney and Jared Malsin was stolen by unidentified youth, the journalists both said on Twitter today. The journalists were unhurt.

Al-Hayat independent TV network said on Twitter that its crew was attacked by apparent Morsi supporters and their broadcast equipment seized while journalists were covering demonstrations in Nasr City today. The independent Al-Fagr paper reported that one of its correspondents, Fathallah Radwan, had been assaulted in Aswan on Thursday. A third paper,Al-Youm Al-Saba'a, said that its reporter, Hossam Khairallah, had been beaten and detained for an hour by who it said were Morsi supporters while covering a pro-Morsi protest in Alexandria on Thursday. Khairallah said his pictures were deleted from his cell phone.

A news crew for the German public broadcaster ARD was assaulted by civilians in the Alf Maskan area of Cairo on Thursday, as they were conducting interviews on the situation of Egyptian Christians, news reports said.

Press freedom has reached a nadir in Egypt this week, with at least three journalists killed, several journalists detained, and numerous journalists injured while reporting on this week's bloody events. At least five news outlets that were shut down in early July remain closed.

T2 is a one-stop shop for reliable and enlightening information about the Arab uprisings, revolutions and their effects. It combines both original content by leading analysts, journalists and authoritative commentators, and curated content carefully selected from across the web to provide activists, researchers, observers and policy makers a catch-all source for the latest on the Arab revolutions and related issues through an interactive, virtual multimedia platform.

The T2 Story

Unattached to governments or political entities, Tahrir Squared is concerned with ‘multiplying the Tahrir Effect around the globe’: an Effect which reawakened civic consciousness and awareness. An Effect which led to neighbourhood protection committees, and created those scenes in Tahrir of different religions, creeds and backgrounds engaging, assisting, and protecting one another.

That Effect still lives inside those who believe in the ongoing revolutions that called for ‘bread, freedom, social justice and human dignity’. This website is a part of that broader initiative, seeking to provide people with the knowledge and information to assist and stimulate that process of reawakening, through the provision of reliable news reports, thoughtful commentary, and useful analysis.

T2 Community

T2 attracted a great deal of attention from various specialists, activists and writers on, and in, the Arab world. After identifying with its principles, work and aims, some were invited to become advisors to the website, acting in personal capacities.

Counselling on issues such as content, editorial direction and strategic initiatives, such advisors include Dr H.A. Hellyer , a writer and political analyst on the region; Motaz Attalla , an educational development specialist; Waleed Almusharaf, a doctoral researcher at the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London; and others.

The T2 community attracted a wonderful group of curators and interns, and fiends and supporters who make T2’s curated sections a source of the latest and most critical content from across the web.

T2’s exclusive content section benefits from the contributions of our diverse columnists, who carry responsibility for the opinions written in their work, with responsibility for the site remaining with T2’s founders. Initial contributions came from the likes of Nathan Brown of George Washington University, Mirette F. Mabrouk of the Economic Research Forum, Hani Sabra of Eurasia, Bassem Sabry, an Egyptian commentator, Rebecca Chiao of HarassMap and Khaled Elgindy of Brookings .

The final component in this community – and the ultimate one – is you. The reader, the activist, the analyst – in short, the user of this site. We hope your experience with T2 is a dynamic one, and that you join us in spreading the Tahrir Effect – in Egypt, in the Arab region, and beyond. The revolution continues.

If you would like to be added to Tahrir Squared's mailing list, please send a message to info AT tahrirsquared DOT com with 'subscribe' in the subject line.

We'd like to explain to you how to use
this site. It can be very simple, or it can be very complex – and that is all
down to you, the user, and what you want the site to do for you.

Now, this is still a brand new site, so
there may be a few glitches --- if you find any, please do not hesitate to
email us at info AT tahrirsquared DOT com!

When you come onto the site, you can
obviously just scroll down and see the content in front of you. That is easiest
for many people – but this site can become your site.

You can personalize what you see in
front of you to see only what you want to see.

You, the user, and the commander of
your experience, can personalize this site according to five different filters:

Geography

Topic

Type of content

Date added

Exclusive versus curated content

If you want to see only Egypt-related
content, for example, you scroll in the first row under ‘Arab world’ or
‘Africa’, and click on ‘Egypt’. That will limit your content to only Egypt
related content. If you want content to be limited to ‘Arab world’ then you
click on Arab world – and all Arab world related content will show up. When you
want to clear these filters, you just press ‘reset’. And there you go.

If you want to see only content related
to politics, for example, you click on ‘politics’ in the second row – and your
site will only show you politics-related content. Maybe you want to see
politics and also war-related content – you can click as many topics as you
want. When you want to clear these filters, you just press ‘reset’.

Perhaps you only want to see videos?
Then you scroll over ‘all content’ in the third row, and remove all other
content icons. Maybe you want to see videos and tweets – so you remove all
icons except for those two. When you want to clear these filters, you just
press ‘reset’. The content icons are ‘articles’, ‘pictures’, ‘videos’,
‘initiatives’, and ‘Tweets’. Pick as many or as little as you want.

Maybe you want to sort according to
date published on the site? Easy enough – just scroll over ‘date range’, and
filter accordingly.

Finally, perhaps you only want to see
original content written exclusively for Tahrir Squared, as opposed to original
content as well as curated content. You have two ways to do this – you can
either look just through the carousel, which is the top row of big boxes under
the filters; or, you can click on ‘original’, and all the content will
disappear from your site except for original content.

All of the above can be mixed and
matched. Try it out – and see how this site is your site.

For general enquiries and feedback : info AT tahrirsquared DOT com.

For queries on our social media channels : socialmedia AT tahrirsquared DOT com.

For op-ed submissions and to get in touch with the editors : editors AT tahrirsquared DOT com.